Master Polikarp's Dialog with Death (, ) is a late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

dialog in verse, written probably in the early 15th century. Master Polikarp's Dialog with Death is now regarded as one of the most important examples of

medieval poetry Poetry took numerous forms in medieval Europe, for example, lyric and epic poetry. The troubadours, trouvères, and the minnesänger are known for composing their lyric poetry about courtly love usually accompanied by an instrument. Among the m ...

in the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

. Its author is unknown, but after discovering the complete, printed version from 1542, some

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

s speculate that

Mikołaj Rej Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (4 February 1505 – between 8 September/5 October 1569) was a Polish poet and prose writer of the emerging Renaissance in Poland as it succeeded the Middle Ages in Poland, Middle Ages, as well as a po ...

rewrote the original text for print. One of the unique features of the work is its use of

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

. The dialog mocks monks and priests, inn-keepers, fat women, dishonest physicians and unjust judges. The work is patterned after the 12th century

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poem ''Dialogus mortis cum homine'', and other such Latin-language publications popular in medieval Europe.

Versions

The original version of the

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

has been lost; what remains is an incomplete copy from 1463–1465, belonging to Mikołaj of Mirzyniec (Mikołaj z Mirzyńca). The ending of the work was known due to its 16th century

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

. It has 498 lines, and presents the everyday life of members of different social classes in 15th century

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. A formerly unknown printed edition of ''Rozmowa Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią'' (''Master Polikarp’s Dialogue with Death'') from 1542 (Cracow, Maciej Scharffenberg) has been discovered in one of the European university libraries. The discovery was made by Professor Wiesław Wydra from the Institute of Polish Philology at

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

. In the contrast to the previously known version of the dialogue from the Płock manuscript, this text has been preserved in its entirety. This discovery, with a complete Polish text of 918 verses, was the most important event in Polish language and literature scholarship for several decades. The critical edition of the discovered text has been published by prof. Wiesław Wydra and became available on 7 November 2018.

Characters

* Master Polikarp – a well-educated person * Death – pale, skinny, bald, yellowish, without nose and lips, showing its ribs, naked, a rotten kind of a woman; it holds a scythe in its hands, and its appearance reminds the reader that life is short, and that after death, human bodies decay

References

Citations

Sources

* ''Polska poezja świecka XV wieku'', oprac. M. Włodarski, Wrocław - Warszawa - Kraków 1997, BN I, 60. * ''"Śmierci z Mistrzem dwojakie gadania…". Nieznany drukowany przekaz "Rozmowy mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią" z 1542 r.'', wydał Wiesław Wydra, Poznań 2018.

External links